SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 155 



plishment. Leaving out of the account the matters affecting traffic 

 alone, I will speak of but three things connected with the adorn- 

 ment of the highways, viz: grading, grass, trees. 



1. Our roads are usually sixty-six feet wide. The streets in towns 

 are commonly not less than sixty feet; except in the main business 

 thoroughfares o^ cities, no such width is needed for teaming. 

 Commonly twelve to twenty feet for the latter purpose is abundant; 

 of course, provided the road-bed over their space is good. 



To secure this last, it is much better, commonly, to expend a 

 given amount of labor upon the narrower space, than to spread this 

 amount over wider stretches. With this narrower publically grav- 

 elled space, much more can be done in ornamental improvement. 

 Where grading is necessary, it is already usual to so narrow the road- 

 bed; but it is, also, too common to cut ditches each side, into which one 

 is needfully alert to keep from plumping into a filthy mess of weeds 

 or stagnant water. With the facilities now at hand for tile drain- 

 ing, there is much less excuse for open ditches of any kind, but from 

 the standpoint of appearance, at least, these narrow, deep ditches, 

 so liable to choking close to the turnpike, are an abomination. 

 Earth sufficient for the grade had better be taken from a wide space, 

 gently sloped from top to bottom, and this shallow scooping is often 

 quite sufficient for the purposes of surface drainage. To the eye, it 

 is infinitely superior. Where a deep cut is necessary to take off the 

 water, permanence requires broadly flaring sides. If the earth is 

 not needed for this, then tiling is most economical. For the 

 artistic effects, gentle slopes should be everywhere insisted upon in 

 transverse grading, and no grading all lengthwise is to be counte- 

 nanced. It may be that there are a few hills within one territory 

 that the practical facilities of travel will require cutting like rail- 

 road leveling; but all such work is in Central Illinois, a decided 

 injury to good appearance. It has often seemed to me that practice 

 of this kind must have been in the main imported from other 

 regions where sufficient excuse for the barbarity really existed; from 

 the traffic side itself, it may well be doubted whether it is wise 

 where often indulged in. The exposed clay during wet weather is 

 certainly a poor substitute for the surface soil. A little up-and-down 

 wheeling is no disadvantage to teams, while as a matter of liveliness 

 and variety in appearance, it is an absolute necessity. We may, at 

 the same time, save work and beautiful effect by sparing such 

 grading. 



2. With soil so fertile as that we possess, vegetation of some 

 sort is sure to grow upon the unused portions of our thoroughfares^ 

 and that luxuriently. Certain weeds, varying somewhat with the 

 character of the soil and moisture, are exceedingly likely to appear 

 wherever permitted to grow. Some of these are almost confined to 

 the roadside, while others are noxious pests also in the fields. All are 



